A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Our man Colin was in the US recently and took time to visit Newegg, specifically to chat about our new line of BRIX compact PC kits. In case you missed it, the GIGABYTE BRIX is an ultra compact kit that provides you with a small, and I mean literally ‘in the palm of your hand’ small, chassis containing a custom motherboard with a choice of 4th gen Intel Core CPUs. We provide a WiFi/Bluetooth Mini-PCIe module too so all you need to add is some SO-DIMM DRR3 modules, and mSATA SSD for your OS and bingo, you have a very small, very cool looking PC that actually has plenty of performance punch.

Watch the video to see the complete BRIX package, plus a few of the new models we’re adding to the series.

Being an Australian I can tell you we love our sports and do pretty well against the big guns despite being a relatively small nation (size of population). Overclocking is just like any other “sport”, it has its stats and ranking systems that immediately give you an idea how well (or badly) you stack up against others.

How about you jump over to the competition first and check it out. Here is the web page you need to go to.

Countdown timer gives you an indication how long a time there is left. Currently we’re looking just over a month to go. The leaderboard is tightly stacked and some of the countries are there that always do well and then there are a few surprises. Australia is one of those countries that has not faired too well in the past finishing well down the ladder in 30+ spots. Well, this year things are different. Boys from OCAU HWBOT team and Team Australia Extreme OC team are joining forces and looking for a strong finish.

Americans have also not been as active in this comp in the past but this year they are looking very strong. The usual suspects of Germany and Indonesia are in top 5. We are yet to see some of the previous champions including Romanian, Greek and Polish teams step up their game. I have no doubt the leaderboard will take many twists and turns yet, best to keep an eye on the latest submissions and team movements daily. I love checking out people’s OC rig setup pics that are compulsory in result submissions. I’ll put up a couple of cool shots here!

GIGABYTE is the proud sponsor of Country Cup competition and is offering some nice prizes for the winners as are other companies including G.Skill, Intel and Cooler Master.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Earlier this week we asked all our Facebook fans and followers to try and guess which quote from the original Star Wars movie we had hidden in an envelope… a big thanks to the hundreds of you that took part, but before we announce the winner, let’s open said envelope and reveal the quote:

Winning Quote: Han Solo - “It’s the ship that made the kessel run in less than twelve parsecs”

As I mentioned in the comments on Facebook, it is kind of (hmm…very loosely) related to overclocking and benchmarking… if you consider the kessel run to be benchmark of course. According to Wookieepedia:

“The Kessel Run was one of the most heavily used smuggling routes in the Galactic Empire. Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs". A parsec is a unit of distance, not time. Solo was not referring directly to his ship's speed when he made this claim. Instead, he was referring to the shorter route he was able to travel by skirting the nearby Maw black hole cluster, thus making the run in under the standard distance. By moving closer to the black holes, Solo managed to cut the distance down to about 11.5 parsecs. The smuggler BoShek actually beat Solo's record in his ship, Infinity, but without cargo to weigh him down. A few months later, Han Solo beat both his own and BoShek's records in a run he made with Luke Skywalker.”

Three people correctly guessed the quote:

Luie Arellano

Jesse Que

Sergio Nergal

Well done guys. Each person was designated a number from one to three (same as above), and using a random number generator at random.org, the number 2 was chosen. Congratulations to Jessie Que in Australia who will shortly be the proud owner of a GIGABYTE Z87X-OC motherboard - a Millennium Falcon in motherboard form you might say… ;)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Here’s a fun little competition which we’re running for two days on our Facebook page to promote our ‘Feel the Force’ OC contest on HWBOT.org. Seeing as the OC contest is inspired by the classic Sci-fi movie Star Wars, we thought we’d have a bit of fun along those lines. Think you know you’re Star Wars quotes? Try this…

Earlier today, we picked out our favorite quote from the movie Star Wars. We wrote it down and put it in the sealed envelope pictured below. The idea is that you simply go to our Facebook page, and leave your ‘Star Wars’ quote in the comments below the image of the envelope. Note: The quote is taken from the original 1977 Star Wars - Episode IV Movie.

If you can correctly guess the quote from the movie, you will win a GIGABYTE Z87X-OC motherboard. If more than one person guesses correctly, then we will select a winner at random.

Good luck, and ‘May the Force be With You’…

Rules:The winner will be drawn at random from all correct guesses. Winner and correct quote will be revealed at 12pm, Thursday 21st November 2103 (Taiwan Time).Note: The quote we selected is from the original Star Wars (Episode IV) movie.

Friday, November 15, 2013

It looks like our buddies in Sydney Australia, PC Authority have gone and called their local LN2 delivery people in preparation for an awesome OC sesh at their Headquarters in Sydney. If I know John Gillooly and co, I’m sure they’d like to invite you all, but as it stands there will be two sub-zero setups (one controlled by our very own Dino), prizes pizza, beer and more for some very lucky winners to enjoy.

How do you win? Easy, just tell them in 25 words or less exactly why you feel you are deserving of the honor. Simple, no? Follow the link below… ;)

Thursday, November 14, 2013

We launched our latest audio technology, ‘AMP-UP Audio’ earlier this year at Computex 2013. One of the main features which differentiated us from the competition was the addition of an upgradable onboard operational amplifier or OP-Amp. OP-Amps are commonly found in high-end audio gear, and produce a much louder more amplified sound and a way superior audio experience generally. The OP-Amp itself is mounted on a socket which means that end-users can physically switch it out and also try different OP-Amps available on the market. Each OP-Amp offers distinct aural properties but generally speaking they make the audio clearer, punchier and more life-like.

Because the quality of front panel audio cables tend to vary from chassis to chassis, Op-Amp audio is available from the back panel audio jack only. Having said that, some users may feel that the back panel is not the most convenient in terms of access. Our buddy Janus saw this as an opportunity for another of his ‘mod jobs’. The mission this time was to make a custom front panel includes a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a front audio output for headphones, plus a USB DAC-UP port (i.e. a specialized port that is design for noise-free DAC connectivity).

Here an image of all the components and tools which Janus used for his mod job. The board used for the build was a GIGABYTE G1.Sniper A88X. The blue cable is used for the USB DAC-UP port, but if your motherboard doesn’t support this feature, it can be used as a regular USB 3 port.

Ok, let's see how he made the actual front panel...

After selecting his chassis, Janus realized he was only going to get one shot at modding his 3.5 inch front panel, so plenty of time and preparation went into making sure he got it right.

He used Photoshop to draw a 1:1 design layout for the placement of USB 3.0 and USB DAC ports and the all important audio jack. This template made it much easier to then cut the necessary holes.

After several hours work, the panel looks pretty professional.

He was then able to screw the USB 3.0 cable onto the back of the panel.

Then he added the external USB cable for the USB DAC. Here Janus added a copper riser, similar to what you would use to mount the motherboard to your chassis.

After adding the USB ports, next came the 3.5mm audio jack. Here you can also see the front panel mounted inside the chassis.

Here you can see how the cables were routed from the rear panel back through the chassis. This way the noise-free USB DAC is preserved so the end user has the choice of adding either a USB DAC or the onboard audio of the OP-AMP direct through the audio jack.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

HWBOT.ORG is running a competition this month called GIGABYTE 'Feel the Force' Z87 OC Contest. A lot of international overclockers have entered so far and we’ve come across some impressive overclocks on memory, CPU frequency and base clock frequency.

Scheele from China has reached an impressive 7GHz with 4770K in first stage.

Dinos22 from Australia is running his memory on air to a whopping DDR3-3711(1855.5MHz)

Vivi from South Africa has reached a monster base clock frequency so far at 204.5MHz

There are 17 days to go. Keep an eye out on all the action at HWBOT.ORG

Friday, November 8, 2013

Just read a really interesting article by our buddy John Gillooly from Aussie techies PC Authority where he points out how recent PC game releases are driving many PC gamers to rethink their current builds and consider a thorough system upgrade. And we’re not just talking about a rather minimal VGA card upgrade – these games have fundamentally larger memory footprints. John notes how new gaming titles Watch Dogs and Call of Duty: Ghosts demand a minimum of 6GB of RAM and a 64-bit OS (well… naturally as you need a 64-bit OS to address more than 4GB anyway).

“We suspected this transition might take a while, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Over recent days the system requirements for both Watch Dogs and Call of Duty: Ghosts on PC have been released, and they should make memory manufacturers pretty happy.

Not only do both titles require a 64-bit edition of Windows, but they also need 6GB of system memory as a minimum. If you are a memory manufacturer this should be a happy day indeed. If you own a gaming laptop with only 4GB of RAM, it probably isn’t so happy a day.”

It’s a great point to make because for most PC users around 4GB is totally sufficient. Know what I mean? You’d need a hell of a lot of tabs open in your browser to breach the 4GB threshold. So even though 64-OSes and processors have been around for many years, it looks like we’ve finally reached a point where PC gaming is going to push 64-bit/4GB+ computing to the realm of normal or even standard.

These games are also demanding up to 50GB of install space, so if you want snappy load times you’re looking at least a 128GB SSD. 256GB for a more comfortable Steam install. So yeah, once again memory vendors will be rubbing their hands.

“The effect that key titles have on hardware sales is phenomenal. Enthusiast PC Gamers embrace content creation and modding, so when titles like Bohemia Interactive's ARMA 3 are in the pipeline; we start to see anticipatory hardware sales. In fact, we are estimating over $800 million of PC builds influenced primarily by this title. A major component of this situation is that many games are placing increasing demands on the CPU. The result is that swapping out the graphics add-in board is not enough this time around and gamers are building (and ordering) overclocked PC's from the ground up."

I guess for myself, this is particularly significant on this of all days. Today we are announcing our latest G1-Killer gaming board, the GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z87 motherboard, and we’re doing it at one of the biggest gaming events of the year – Blizzcon 2013.

Let’s just say, I have an odd feeling that in 2014 and beyond, PC gaming will be one area of major significance for GIGABYTE as it becomes a much important and influential part of the general PC enthusiast scene.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Kiwi system integrators ‘Computer Lounge’ have developed a pretty impressive PC build using the GIGABYTE Z87X-OC motherboard. The most stunning aspect is most certainly the chassis design which opts for a unique frame design dubbed the ‘D Frame’. It’s pretty unconventional but after looking at the images here, I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s also pretty damn awesome.

The Z87X-OC board looks totally at home with this orange themed build, especially with those luscious water cooling bricks and orange cooling fluid. Looks almost like a GIGABYTE OC themed build.